Cork County Council is to launch an investigation into serious flooding caused by Storm Ellen in Skibbereen last night.
A multi-million Euro flood defence scheme was recently installed in the town.
A number of towns in West Cork experienced flooding last night as the Storm made landfall in the south of the country.
Parts of Kinsale and Bantry were under water overnight and Cork TD Holly Cairns shared a video of a flooded Bridge Street in Skibbereen.
On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Aidan Weir, Senior Engineer with Cork County Council said the county was “battered fairly badly.”
“The principle issue has been flooding in Skibbereen which is now under control but it impacted several properties on Bridge Street.
“The capacity of culvert on the Rossa Road has been the key issue there and that matter is going to be investigated by our engineers today.”
A culvert is a large pipe that allows water to flow under a road or pathway.
Flood relief
An €18m flood relief scheme was installed in the town in recent years and Mr Weir said crews will now investigate what went wrong.
“There are indeed flood defences in Skibbereen and it is a real cause of concern as to how Bridge Street got flooded last night,” he said.
“But as I say, fire crews responded really well and it is under control at this point.
“But there will be investigations carried out as to how this culvert at Rossa Road was unable to deal with it.”
Fallen trees
He said there are trees down “all over the county” and anyone looking to take to the roads should take extra care.
“We have over 50 calls in about trees blocking roads right through the night,” he said.
“If you have to get up and get into your car in Cork, we absolutely advise that you take real caution on the road.
“There are trees down right across the county and some of them have no warning signs in advance at this stage of the morning so we are urging motorist to take extreme care.”
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